Okay. Go.
Okay, you win.
♪♪
Scribner: The lives of Broadway performers are busy.
They only have a few short hours
between their matinee and evening performances,
and they're giving us an inside look,
from grabbing a bite to unwinding,
plus a backstage tour.
Have you ever wanted to see what we do in the time
sandwiched between performances?
Follow along and find out.
This is "Broadway Sandwich."
♪♪
Today we're at a musical adaptation
of one of the most iconic romantic comedies of all time,
shot in 1990 about the unlikely romance
between an escort and a businessman.
Uh-huh, we're at "Pretty Woman."
♪ Hold your head up high
♪ You're beautiful
♪ You've got style and grace
Scribner: Starting next fall, you'll be able to catch
"Pretty Woman" around the country on the national tour.
We're at the Nederlander Theatre,
built in 1921, and on 41st Street,
it's the southernmost theater in the Theater District.
Today, we're hanging with funny woman
Ellyn Marie Marsh.
In addition to "Pretty Woman," Ellyn has been in "Kinky Boots"
and "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" on Broadway.
Plus, she's had a series of successful
and hilarious cabaret shows and digital series.
I can't wait to hang out with Ellyn.
She's one of the funniest people I have ever met.
Is this where Ellyn is?
Hi.
Hello.
How are you?
How was your matinee?
It was wonderful, life-changing.
So we only have a few hours before your next show.
Yes.
What's the plan for today?
Well, I'm usually very busy in between shows,
but apparently I have to sit down for a meal with you.
You've got to sit for a few minutes.
So I've got to sit down today and have a meal.
Good.
I also have a voice lesson to teach.
Do you want to come to that?
Yeah, sounds great.
And, yeah, and then all kinds of other hijinks.
Perfect. Let's go do hijinks.
Great.
♪♪
So in addition to doing all these Broadway shows,
raising your daughter, doing life...
Yep.
...you have, like, 100 side projects.
Do trivia night.
You've done "Turning the Tables,"
which is one of my favorite shows.
It's brilliant.
So how do you find time for it all, and, like,
why do you feel motivated to do all those things?
I kind of just feel my brain is kind of always going,
and if I have an idea...
You know, the same thing about trivia.
I was like, "This is a great idea. Let me go do it."
So I've always kind of been a doer, I guess.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
....you poke fun at the industry, which is awesome.
I don't want to use the word exposing them,
but just talking about them I think is pretty funny.
It is. Oh, yeah. You go through a lot.
And I think if you do it from a loving place
because obviously I love this industry,
and I love the community, and that is,
you know, it's my career and my life and my livelihood,
but I also think it's a little silly.
It is silly. So "I'm Sorry...What?"
is different from your other shows.
Yes. And it has a little bit of a deeper...
Yeah.
My third show is sort of a retelling of some crazy things
that happened in my life, so it involved stalking and cops
getting involved and restraining orders.
In the end, it actually involved my daughter
in a really not-great way,
and I think that me sharing my story
made a lot of other women not feel alone
because a lot of people are comfortable...
or not comfortable, but rather we accept
sort of physical abuse or domestic abuse
but kind of the mind and sort of being manipulated
is really embarrassing to admit,
so that's how that show came out of.
Yeah.
Yes, please!
Yeah. Okay, ready. Yep.
Hiccup.
Boo-boo. Doorbell. Yep.
Yeah, but inside my arms are...
Oh, skeleton.
Yes. That was bad.
I am a mom.
You're a Broadway mom.
Yes. Tell us about her.
My daughter is almost 10 years old.
Her name is Lola Grace,
and she's not named after Lola in "Kinky Boots."
Or "Damn Yankees."
Or Da-- [Laughs] Or "Damn Yankees."
Lola.
She's named after a song by The Kinks.
Yes. Love that.
So what is it like for Lola growing up in theater?
With gay people, it's just super gay.
Hey, I think that's a good way to grow up.
Yes. No. It's the best. It's the best. Yeah.
And she also is very quick to say,
"Great. When are we going backstage?"
Right. Not everybody gets to do that.
Right, so after the curtain comes down, she's like,
"Who are we meeting?"
♪♪
-Hello. -Hi.
This is Garen.
Hi. Nice to meet you, Presley.
Nice to meet you. Hi, Presley.
We were just having a romantic root-beer float.
It was pretty cute.
It was like being at The Max on "Saved by the Bell."
Do you even know that show, "Saved by the Bell"?
She wasn't even born nearly anywhere.
Never heard of it.
Okay, so let's go start because Presley is also between shows.
"Beetlejuice."
"Beetlejuice: The Musical."
Hey, congratulations. That's amazing.
Is that your first Broadway show?
It's my second.
It's your second? What was your first Broadway show?
All right.
That's so cool.
Yeah. It was really fun.
So are you going to participate?
If you want me... Do you want me to participate?
Yes, participate.
[ Lip trill warm up ]
[ Coughs ] Whoo!
Oh, sliding down, touching of the sound,
keeping everything nice and relaxed.
Arms down.
Feet are flat, flat on the floor.
Yes.
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
So it's, "Ooh, ah, ooh."
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ooh, ooh, ah, ooh ♪
Is that because I'm singing?
I don't know. We're not...
We have different ranges.
♪ Ooh, ah, ooh
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ah, ooh
Ooh-ah-ooh
Tell me what placement is.
So placement is where you place something in your voice.
So if I were to go, ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
I could also place it forward and go --
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Oh, that really hit me.
Of I can place it in my head and go --
♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Show what a nice forward placement sounds like,
Mm-hmm.
Ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ahhhh, ah
Oh, we could do a duet.
All: Ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ahhh, ah
[ Laughter ]
Okay, so we have to go.
You have a show to go to, you have a show to go to,
and I'm going to go backstage with you.
So thank you very much.
It was great to meet you.
I can't wait to see you onstage.
Congrats, and thank you.
All right. Let's go.
Bye.
Okay, Ellyn: high stakes, here, "60 Second Sandwich."
"SSS."
Okay, you have 60 seconds on the clock...
Okay. ...1 minute. Okay.
You're going to answer as many questions
as you can in the time given.
Okay. Are you ready? Ready.
Ellyn Marsh. Yep. Go!
Okay. Instagram user Robbie Vilchez asks,
"Worst job you've ever done?"
Singing waiter.
Number two: Facebook's Theresa Kent,
"With so much going on in your life,
how do you remember all your lines and lyrics?"
I don't.
Okay, "Broadway performance that's really inspired you."
Oh, "Rent," original "Rent."
Four: Facebook's Dennis Schroeder asks,
"What's the worst advice you ever received?"
Other than, "Sing from your butt,"
worst advice ever received is...
Oh, "Dye your hair blonde."
Could you imagine?
Five: Cake or pie? Cake!
Six: Hackstack wants to know if people really call
two-show days a twodoshay?
No. Please stop.
How do you spell twodoshay?
I don't know. That's horrible.
Doesn't matter, okay.
Seven: favorite "Kinky Boots" memory?
Tony night, Tony night!
Eight: favorite part of being on Broadway?
Nine: dream role?
Eva Peron.
Ten: Do you write your own bio in the playbill?
Preshow rituals?
Twelve: favorite TV show?
Oh, god.
"Friends"! Thirteen...
...go-to karaoke song?
Oh, time is up.
Perfect!
I love it. All right. So we got to go.
We got to go. Bye. Bye.
♪♪
Yep.
Why leave such a great job for a new thing?
So I had been in "Kinky Boots" from the beginning,
from the workshop phases,
and I had been doing the workshops of "Pretty Woman,"
doing double duty, you know, for a couple of years.
Not easy.
And I think I had gotten everything
I wanted to out of "Kinky Boots."
It was 6 amazing years.
My daughter grew up backstage.
And you understudied in "Kinky Boots."
And you understudy in this show.
Are you...
Do you feel like you're kind of always understudying
in whatever shows you end up doing or what?
I mean, a little bit. I'm sort of a go-to understudy.
I think I haven't really found that perfect part
that's exactly right for me.
I think can kind of slide into different characters.
Right.
You'd be perfect for that, probably.
[ Laughs ]
But you're also known for creating very rich
Mm-hmm,
"Unnecessarily elaborate," I like to call it.
Yeah.
One year on stage teching a show,
you could be onstage in one scene
for an entire morning or an entire afternoon.
So you have time.
So you have some time to make up some fun backstories
and give your character a voice
and an accent or a lisp or a limp.
So what's your character like in "Pretty Woman"?
There's a few.
There's a few. Yeah.
There's Amanda, the shop girl who doesn't let her shop.
In "Kinky Boots," I was Jenna Louise,
the mullet with the tattoos.
[ British accent ] You know...
Yeah.
[ British accent ] "You know, Yorkshire in this way."
[ Normal voice ] Yeah.
Yeah, so...
Ellyn Marsh, really nice.
[ Normal voice ] So you are a full-blown "Rent"head.
A little bit.
I know.
It defined a generation of musical theater
and a generation of people growing up into it.
And "Rent" was the first thing that made me think
that musical theater was cool.
Do you want to go see my dressing room?
Okay. Okay, cool.
Okay.
♪♪
But I do kind of want that shirt.
♪♪
Ooh, it smells good, like essential oils.
Yeah. It smells like women. Women don't smell.
It's true.
...there are 87 women in this room at any given time.
Uh-huh, yeah.
I love this wallpaper.
Just...this is my station, just this little 2...
That's about 2 feet.
Both: Yeah.
Yeah, so that's where I spend more time than any place.
Hey, that's precious real estate
in New York City in Times Square.
Mm-hmm.
Well, it's kind of like our own little apartment
because if you need to nap or do your makeup...
...or poop...
...or do anything, you can come here.
And it's here.
Yeah.
A lot of people don't know what this is.
Okay.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a ditty bag,
and they bring your underwear, socks or,
I guess, bras and stuff you need.
Anything that would touch our skin, yeah.
And then when you're done with it, you put it back in,
and they put it in the washing machine,
and you get it for your next show.
Ditty bag. Fun facts on "Broadway Sandwich."
Fun facts: We don't wear our own underwear.
No.
So "Pretty Woman" is so iconic, and everybody knows the movie.
And so people have this,
like... They know "Pretty Woman."
They love "Pretty Woman."
So you must have fans and people sending things and...
Yep.
So we had a Gary Marshall tribute night,
which was... this is...
Gary Marshall always carried a handkerchief on him,
so they made these adorable handkerchiefs
I see.
That was for opening in his memory
because he was at our first couple of workshops,
Mm-hmm.
But he's obviously still here in spirit.
We have Squigs.
He does these amazing caricatures of the show,
That's you.
...with the big teeth.
And the Hillary...
That's the face that lights the whole audience, by the way.
...the Hillary Clinton hair.
So we have all kinds of little knickknacks like that.
I, of course, keep my daughter with me at my station.
And...
So anyway...
I could stay here all night.
I know you could, but you can't.
Yeah.
You have to go because we have a Broadway show to do.
I think I got my cue.
Thank you for coming.
You're beautiful. You're pretty.
Bye, Ellyn.
Okay.
Ugh! That was so fun.
I love Ellyn, and how cool is it that she's been doing
eight shows a week for 10 years
while raising up her kid as a single mom?
Pretty impressive, plus she has time to write trivia night,
cabaret shows, digital series, and she teaches voice lessons?
Geez, I feel like a louse.
I got to go practice my voice and study up for trivia night.
See you next time on another "Broadway Sandwich."
♪♪